Slovak language
| Slovak slovenčina, slovenský jazyk |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Slovakia, United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Serbia, Hungary etc. | |
| Region: | Central Europe | |
| Total speakers: | over 6 million | |
| Ranking: | 104 | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Slavic West Slavic Czech-Slovak Slovak |
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: |  European Union Slovakia Vojvodina (Serbia) |
|
| Regulated by: | Slovak Academy of Sciences (The Ľudovít Štúr Linguistic Institute) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | sk | |
| ISO 639-2: | slo (B) | slk (T) |
| ISO 639-3: | slk | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Slovak language (slovenčina, slovenský jazyk, not to be confused with slovenščina), is sometimes called “Slovakian”, which is incorrect. It is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, and Sorbian).
The Czech and Slovak languages are mutually intelligible.
Slovak is spoken in Slovakia (by 5 million people), the United States (500,000), the Czech Republic (320,000), northern Serbia (60,000), Ireland (30,000), Romania (22,000), Hungary (20,000), Poland (20,000), Canada (20,000), Croatia (5,000), Australia, Austria, Ukraine, and Bulgaria.
Contents |
Alphabet
Slovak uses a modification of the Latin alphabet. The modifications include the four diacriticals (ˇ, ´, ¨, ^; see Pronunciation) placed above certain letters.
The lexicographic ordering of the Slovak alphabet is very similar to that of English: A B C D DZ E F G H CH I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. The complete alphabet, however, allows for characters with diacritics (the character with diacritics always comes after the same character without diacritics) and is as follows: a á ä b c č d ď dz dž e é f g h ch i í j k l ľ ĺ m n ň o ó ô p q r ŕ s š t ť u ú v w x y ý z ž. Note that dz, dž and ch are considered single letters and that ch follows the h (not the c). The letters "q", "w", "x" are only used in loanwords, never in native Slovak words.
The names of the letters (like in English ey, bee, cee, dee …) are: a (á), á (dlhé á), ä (prehlasované á; á s dvoma bodkami, široké e), bé, cé, čé, dé, ďé, dzé, džé, e (é), é (dlhé é), ef, gé, há, chá, i (í), í (dlhé í), jé, ká, el, eľ, dlhé el, em, en, eň, o (ó), ó (dlhé ó), ô (ó s vokáňom), pé, kvé, er, dlhé er, es, eš, té, ťé, u (ú), ú (dlhé ú), vé, dvojité vé, iks, ypsilon (ý), dlhé ý, zet, žet (for pronunciation see below)
The characters are divided as follows:
- Vowels are: a á ä e é i í o ó y ý u ú (+ r ŕ l ĺ).
- Diphthongs are: ia, ie, iu, ô.
- Consonants are: b c č d ď dz dž f g h ch j k l ľ ĺ m n ň p q r ŕ s š t ť v w x z ž. The consonants r, l, ŕ, ĺ are considered vowels in certain cases (see Pronunciation).
All vowels, but none of the specific consonants (that is no č, ď, ľ, ĺ, ň, ŕ, š, ť, ž) are available within the Latin-1 encoding.
Orthography
The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonemic principle, "Write as you hear". The secondary principle is the morphological principle: forms derived from the same stem are written in the same way even if they are pronounced differently. An example of this principle is the assimilation rule (see below). The tertiary principle is the etymological principle, which can be seen in the use of i after certain consonants and of y after other consonants, although both i and y are pronounced the same way. Finally there is the rarely applied grammatical principle, under which, for example, there is a difference in writing (but not in the pronunciation) between the basic singular and plural form of masculine adjectives, for example pekný (nice – sg.) vs pekní (nice – pl.), both pronounced [pekniː].
Most foreign words receive Slovak spelling immediately or after some time. For example, "weekend" is víkend, "software" is softvér (not exclusively), and "quality" is spelled kvalita (possibly from Italian qualità). Personal and geographical names from other languages using Latin alphabets keep their original spelling, unless there is a fully Slovak form for the name (for example Londýn for "London").
Slovak orthography has changed many times. One of the most important changes was after World War II when s began to be written as z where pronounced as [z] in prefixes, for example smluva into zmluva, sväz into zväz. (That is, the phonemic principle has been given priority over the etymological principle in this case.)
The Slovak alphabet (minus the vowel diacritics) is often used to transcribe Ukrainian or Russian into the Latin alphabet.
The Slovak language has distinctive palatalization. Among the Slavic languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, Slovak is the closest to Rusyn and then to Ukrainian and Russian. Many Slovak words are familiar to Rusyn speakers and to a much lesser extent, Ukrainian speakers.
| English word | Slovak | Rusyn | Ukrainian |
|---|---|---|---|
| to buy | kupovať | kupovaty | kupuvaty |
| Hello! | Vitajte! | Vitajte! | Vitajte! |
| morning | ráno | rano | rano(k) |
| Thank you | Ďakujem | Ďakuvu | Ďakuju |
| How are you doing? | Ako sa máš? | Jak s'a maješ? | Jak spravy? Jak s'a maješ? |
The accent (stress) in the standard language is always placed on the first syllable of a word (or on the preceding preposition, see below). This is not the case in certain dialects. The eastern dialects, for example, have penultimate stress, which at times makes them difficult for speakers of Standard Slovak to understand. Some of the north-central dialects have a weak stress on the first syllable, which becomes stronger and "moves" to the penultimate in certain cases. Monosyllabic conjunctions, monosyllabic short personal pronouns and auxiliary verb forms of the verb byť (to be) are, as a rule, not stressed.
Prepositions form a single prosodic unit with the following word, unless the word is long (four syllables or more) or the preposition stands at the beginning of a sentence.
The acute mark (in Slovak "dĺžeň", "prolongation mark") indicates a long vowel, for example í = approximately /i:/. This mark may appear on any vowel except "ä" (wide "e", široké "e" in Slovak). It may also appear above the consonants "l" and "r" (which, in such cases, are considered vowels).
The circumflex ("vokáň") exists only above the letter "o." It turns the o into a diphthong (see below).
The umlaut ("prehláska", "dve bodky" = two dots) is only used above the letter "a." It indicates a raised vowel, almost an "e".
The caron (in Slovak "mäkčeň", "palatalization mark" or "softener") indicates either palatalization or a change of alveolar fricatives into post-alveolar, in informal Slovak linguistics often called just "palatalization". Eight consonants can bear a caron. Not all "normal" consonants have a "caroned" counterpart:
- In printed texts, the caron is printed in two forms: (1) č, dž, š, ž, ň and (2) ľ, ď, ť (looking more like an apostrophe), but this is just a convention. In handwritten texts, it always appears in the first form.
- Phonetically, there are two forms of "palatalization": ľ, ň, ď, ť are palatalized consonants, while č, dž, š, ž are postalveolar affricates and fricatives.
- To accelerate writing, a rule has been introduced that the frequent character combinations ňe, ďe, ťe, ľe, ňi, ďi, ťi, ľi, ňí, ďí, ťí, ľí are simply written ne, de, te, le, ni, di, ti, li, ní, dí, tí, lí (that is without the caron). These combinations are usually pronounced as if there were a caron above the consonant. There are exceptions:
-
- foreign words (for example telefón is pronounced with a hard t and a hard l)
- the following words: ten (that), jeden (one), vtedy (then)
- nominative masculine plural endings of pronouns and adjectives do not "soften" preceding n, d, t, l (for example tí odvážni mladí muži /tiː odvaːʒniː mladiː muʒi/, the/those brave young men)
- short e in adjectival endings, which is derived from long é shortened by the "rhythmical rule" (see below), does not "soften" preceding n, d, t, l (for example krásne stromy /kraːsnɛ.../, beautiful trees, c.f. zelené stromy /zɛlʲɛnɛː.../, green trees)
- ľ is current pronounced by many speakers, particularly from western Slovakia, as a non-palatalized l, esp. in li and le where the caron is not written. The palatalized pronunciation of li and le as palatalized has become a middle and eastern dialect feature, or as a sign of hypercorrectness.
In addition, the following rules hold:
- When a voiced consonant having a voiceless correspondent (that is b, d, ď, dz, dž, g, h, z, ž) stands at the end of the word before a pause, it is pronounced as a voiceless consonant (that is p, t, ť, c, č, k, ch, s, š, respectively), for example pohyb is pronounced /pohip/, prípad is pronounced /priːpat/
- When "v" stands at the end of the syllable, it is pronounced as non-syllabic u (bilabial approximant /u̯/), with the exception of the position before "n" or "ň", for example, kov /kou̯/ (metal), kravský /krau̯skiː/ (cow - adjective), but povstať /pofstatʲ/ (uprise) because the v is not at the end of the syllable (po-vstať), hlavný /hlavniː/ because "v" stands before "n" here
- The assimilation rule: Consonant clusters containing both voiced and voiceless elements are entirely voiced if the last consonant is a voiced one, or voiceless if the last consonant is voiceless. For example, otázka is pronounced /otaːska/, vzchopiť sa is pronounced /fsxopitsːa/. This rule applies also over the word boundary, for example prísť domov /priːzdʲ domou̯/ (to come home), viac jahôd /vi̯adzjahu̯ot/ (more strawberries). The voiced counterpart of "ch" /x/ is /ɣ/.
- The rhythmical rule: A long syllable (that is, a syllable containing á, é, í, ý, ó, ú, ŕ, ĺ, ia, ie, iu, ô) cannot be followed by another long syllable in the same word. This rule has morphonemic implications: for example žen-ám but tráv-am) and conjugation (for example nos-ím but súd-im). There are several exceptions to this rule. It is typical of the literary Slovak language, and does not appear in Czech, or in some Slovak dialects.
Official transcriptions
Slovak linguists do not usually use IPA for phonetic transcription of their own language or others, but have their own system based on the Slovak alphabet. Many English language textbooks make use of this alternative system of 'phonetic' transcription, a factor which probably contributes to some Slovaks developing a particular ('incorrect') pronunciation of certain English phonemes. In the following table, pronunciation of each grapheme is given in this system as well as in the IPA.
| grapheme | IPA | transcr. |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | a |
| á | aː | á |
| ä | æ, ɛ | ä, e |
| b | b | b |
| c | t͡s | c |
| č | t͡ʃ | č |
| d | d | d |
| ď | ɟ, dʲ | ď |
| dz | d͡z | ʒ |
| dž | d͡ʒ | ǯ |
| e | e | e |
| é | eː | é |
| f | f | f |
| g | g | g |
| h | ɦ | h |
| ch | x | x |
| i | ɪ | i |
| í | iː | í |
| j | j | j |
| k | k | k |
| l | l, l̩ | l |
| ĺ | l̩ː | ĺ̥ |
| ľ | ʎ, lʲ | ľ |
| m | m | m |
| n | n | n |
| ň | ɲ, nʲ | ň |
| o | ɔ | o |
| ó | ɔː | ó |
| ô | u̯o | ŭo |
| p | p | p |
| q | kv | kv |
| r | r, r̩ | r |
| ŕ | r̩ː | ŕ̥ |
| s | s | s |
| š | ʃ | š |
| t | t | t |
| ť | c, tʲ | ť |
| u | u | u |
| ú | uː | ú |
| v | v | v |
| w | v | v |
| x | ks | ks |
| y | ɪ | i |
| ý | iː | í |
| z | z | z |
| ž | ʒ | ž |
Some additional notes (transcriptions in IPA unless otherwise stated):
- Pronunciation of ä as [æ] is already archaic (or dialectical) but still considered correct by some authorities; the other standard pronunciation today is [ɛ].
- r and l can be syllabic /r̩/ and /l̩/ and behave as vowels. When they are used in this manner, they are written with the acute accent (ŕ and ĺ). e.g., vlk (wolf), prst (finger), štvrť (quarter), krk (neck), bisyllabic vĺča—vĺ-ča (wolfling), vŕba—vŕ-ba (willow-tree), etc.
- ch, normally the unvoiced [x], has a voiced allophone resulting from assimilation [ɣ].
- The graphic group -ou (at the end of words) is pronounced [ɔu̯] but is not considered a separate diphthong. Its phonemic interpretation is /ov/.
- ia, ie, iu form diphthongs /i̯a/ /i̯e/ /i̯u/ in native Slovak words, but two monophtongs in foreign and loan words.
- m has the allophone [ɱ] in front of the labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/.
- n in front of (post)alveolar fricatives has an allophone written as /n̶/ in Slovak phonemic transcription.
- n can be [ŋ] in front of the velar plosives /k/ and /g/.
- f can be voiced [f̬] as a result of phonetic assimilation.
Syntax
The main features of Slovak syntax are:
- The verb (predicate) agrees in person and number with its subject, for example:
- Speváčka spieva. (The+female+singer is+singing.)
- (Speváčk-a spieva-0, where -0 is a third person singular ending)
- Speváčky spievajú. (The+female+singers are+singing.)
- (Speváčk-y spieva-j-ú; -ú is a third person plural ending, and /j/ is a hiatus sound)
- My speváčky spievame. (We the+female+singers are+singing.)
- (My speváčk-y spieva-me, where -me is the first person plural ending)
- and so forth.
- Adjectives, pronouns and numerals agree in person, gender and case with the noun to which it refers(see Slovak declension).
- Adjectives precedes their noun. Botanic or zoological terms are exceptions (for example, mačka divá, literally "cat wild", Felis silvestris).
Word order in Slovak is relatively free, since strong inflection enables the identification of thematic role (subject, object, predicate, etc.) regardless of its placement. This relatively free word order allows the use of word order in information structure.
Examples:
- Ten veľký muž tam dnes otvára obchod. = That big man opens a store there today. (ten = that; veľký = big; muž = man; tam = there; dnes = today; otvára = opens; obchod = store)
- Ten veľký muž dnes otvára obchod tam. = That big man is today opening a store there.
- Dnes tam otvára obchod ten veľký muž. = Today over there a store is being opened by that big man.
- Obchod tam dnes otvára ten veľký muž. = The store over there is today being opened by that big man.
The unmarked order is Subject-Verb-Object. Word order is not completely free. In the above example, the following combinations are not possible:
- Ten otvára veľký muž tam dnes obchod.
- Obchod muž tam ten veľký dnes otvára. ...
The following are unlikely:
- Otvára ten veľký muž tam dnes obchod? = Is that big man opening the store there?
- Obchod ten veľký muž dnes tam otvára.
Morphology
Articles (Členy)
There is no article in the Slovak language. The demonstrative pronoun ten (fem: tá, neuter: to) may be used in front of the noun in situations where definiteness must be indicated.
Nouns (Podstatné mená)
See: Slovak declension
Adjectives (Prídavné mená)
See: Slovak declension
Pronouns (Zámená)
See: Slovak declension
Numerals (Číslovky)
There are unique forms for 0-10. 11-19 are formed by the numeral plus "násť." Compound numerals (21, 1054) are combinations of these words formed in the same order as their mathematical symbol is written (for example 21 = dvadsaťjeden, literally "twenty one")).
The numerals are: (1) jeden (jedno (neuter), jedna (feminine)), (2) dva (dve (neuter, feminine)), (3) tri, (4) štyri, (5) päť, (6) šesť, (7) sedem, (8) osem, (9) deväť, (10) desať, (11) jedenásť, (12) dvanásť, (13) trinásť, (14) štrnásť, (15) pätnásť, (16) šestnásť, (17) sedemnásť, (18) osemnásť, (19) devätnásť, (20) dvadsať, (21) dvadsaťjeden,... (30) tridsať, (31) tridsaťjeden,... (40) štyridsať,... (50) päťdesiat,... (60) šesťdesiat,... (70) sedemdesiat,... (80) osemdesiat,... (90) deväťdesiat,... (100) sto, (101) stojeden,... (200) dvesto,... (300) tristo,... (900)deväťsto,... (1,000) tisíc,... (1,100) tisícsto,... (2,000) dvetisíc,... (100,000) stotisíc,... (200,000) dvestotisíc,... (1,000,000) milión,... (1,000,000,000) miliarda,...
See also: Slovak declension
Verbs (Slovesá)
- Verbs have three major conjugations. Three persons and two numbers (singular and plural) are distinguished. There are several conjugation paradigms.
- á-Type Verbs
| volať, to call | Singular | Plural | Past Participle (masculine - feminine) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | volám | voláme | volal - volala |
| 2nd Person | voláš | voláte | |
| 3rd Person | volá | volajú |
- á-Type Verbs - rhythmic law
| bývať, to live | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | bývam | bývame | býval - bývala |
| 2nd Person | bývaš | bývate | |
| 3rd Person | býva | bývajú |
- á-Type Verbs - soft stem
| vracať, to return | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | vraciam | vraciame | vracal - vracala |
| 2nd Person | vraciaš | vraciate | |
| 3rd Person | vracia | vracajú |
- í-Type Verbs
| robiť, to do, work | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | robím | robíme | robil - robila |
| 2nd Person | robíš | robíte | |
| 3rd Person | robí | robia |
- í-Type Verbs - rhythmic law
| vrátiť, to return | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | vrátim | vrátime | vrátil - vrátila |
| 2nd Person | vrátiš | vrátite | |
| 3rd Person | vráti | vrátia |
- ie-Type Verbs
| vidieť, to see | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | vidím | vidíme | videl - videla |
| 2nd Person | vidíš | vidíte | |
| 3rd Person | vidí | vidia |
- e-Type Verbs -ovať
| kupovať, to buy | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | kupujem | kupujeme | kupoval - kupovala |
| 2nd Person | kupuješ | kupujete | |
| 3rd Person | kupuje | kupujú |
- e-Type Verbs - (typically -Cnuť)
| zabudnúť, to forget | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | zabudnem | zabudneme | zabudol - zabudla |
| 2nd Person | zabudneš | zabudnete | |
| 3rd Person | zabudne | zabudnú |
- ie-Type Verbs - (typically -Vnuť)
| minúť, to spend, miss | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | miniem | minieme | minul - minula |
| 2nd Person | minieš | miniete | |
| 3rd Person | minie | minú |
- ie-Type Verbs - -cť, -sť, -zť
| niesť, to carry | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | nesiem | nesieme | niesol - niesla |
| 2nd Person | nesieš | nesiete | |
| 3rd Person | nesie | nesú |
- ie-Type Verbs - -nieť
| stučnieť, to carry (be fat) | Singular | Plural | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | stučniem | stučnieme | stučnel - stučnela |
| 2nd Person | stučnieš | stučniete | |
| 3rd Person | stučnie | stučnejú |
- Irregular Verbs
| byť, to be | jesť, to eat | vedieť, to know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Sg | som | jem | viem |
| 2nd Sg | si | ješ | vieš |
| 3rd Sg | je | je | vie |
| 1st Pl | sme | jeme | vieme |
| 2nd Pl | ste | jete | viete |
| 3rd Pl | sú | jedia | vedia |
| Past Participle | bol | jedol | vedel |
- Subject personal pronouns are omitted unless they are emphatic.
- Non-continuous time is indicated with a perfective verb and the continuous version with an imperfective verb which is formed on the perfective stem. These are considered separate lexemes. Example: :to hide = skryť, to be hiding = skrývať
- Historically, there were two past tenses. Both are formed analytically. One of these is not used in the modern language, being considered dated and/or grammatically incorrect. Examples for two related verbs:
- skryť (to hide) : skryl som (I hid / I have hidden); bol som skryl (I had hidden)
- skrývať (to be hiding): skrýval som (I was hiding); bol som skrýval (I had been hiding)
- There is one future tense. For imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically, for perfective verbs it is identical with the present tense. Examples:
- skryť (to hide) : skryjem (I will hide / I will have hidden)
- skrývať (to be hiding) : budem skrývať (I will be hiding)
- There are two conditional forms. Both are formed analytically from the past tense:
- skryť (to hide) : skryl by som (I would hide), bol by som skryl (I would have hidden)
- skrývať (to be hiding) : skrýval by som (I would be hiding), bol by som skrýval (I would have been hiding)
- The passive voice is formed either as in English (to be + past participle) or as in Romance languages (using the reflexive pronoun 'sa'):
- skryť (to hide): je skrytý (he is hidden); sa skryje (he is hidden)
- skrývať (to be hiding): je skrývaný (he is being hidden); sa skrýva (he is being hidden)
- The active present participle (=which is ...ing) is formed using the suffixes –úci/ -iaci / - aci
- skryť (to hide) : skryjúci (which is hiding)
- skrývať (to be hiding): skrývajúci (which is being hiding)
- The gerund (=by/when ...ing) is formed using the suffixes –úc / -uc / –iac/-ac
- skryť (to hide): skryjúc (by/when hiding)
- skrývať (to be hiding): skrývajúc (by/when being hiding)
- The active past participle (= which was ...ing) was formerly formed using the suffix –vší, but is no longer used.
- The passive participle (= ...ed (adj.)) is formed using the suffixes -ný / -tý / -ený:
- skryť (to hide): skrytý (hid)
- skrývať (to be hiding): skrývaný (being hidden)
- The 'verbal noun' (= the ...ing) is formed using the suffix –ie:
- skryť (to hide): skrytie (the hiding)
- skrývať (to be hiding): skrývanie (the continuous hiding)
Adverbs (Príslovky)
Adverbs are formed by replacing the adjectival ending with the ending –o or –e/-y. Sometimes both –o and -e are possible. Examples:
- vysoký (high) – vysoko (highly)
- pekný (nice) – pekne (nicely)
- priateľský (friendly) – priateľsky (in a friendly manner)
- rýchly (fast) – rýchlo / rýchle (quickly)
The comparative/superlative of adverbs is formed by replacing the adjectival ending with a comparative/superlative ending -(ej)ší or –(ej)šie. Examples:
- rýchly (fast)– rýchlejší (faster) – najrýchlejší (fastest):rýchlo (quickly) – rýchlejšie (more quickly) – najrýchlejšie (most quickly)
Prepositions (Predložky)
Each preposition is associated with one or more grammatical cases. The noun governed by a preposition must appear in the case required by the preposition in the given context. Example:
- from friends = od priateľov
Priateľov is the genitive case of priatelia. It must appear in this case because the preposition od (=from) always calls for its objects to be in the genitive.
- throughout the square = po námestí (locative case)
- past the square = po námestie (accusative case)
Po has a different meaning depending on the case of its governed noun.
History
Relationships to other languages
The Slovak language is a descendant of Proto-Slavic language, itself a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is closely related to the other West Slavic languages. In particular, Slovak is very closely related to the Czech language. It has been influenced by many languages, including Czech, Polish, German, and Hungarian.
The Slavic language varieties tend to be closely related, and have had a large degree of mutual influence, due to the complicated ethnopolitical history of their historic ranges. This is reflected in the many features Slovak shares with neighboring language varieties. Standard Slovak shares high degrees of mutual intelligibility with many Slavic varieties. Despite this closeness to other Slavic varieties, there is significant variation among Slovak dialects. In particular, eastern varieties differ significantly from the standard language, which is based on central and western varieties.
Most dialects of Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible; the two are sometimes considered to be poles of a dialect continuum. The two varieties have a long history of interaction and mutual influence well before the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. The written form is very close to the Czech one, but there are phonetic and vocabulary differences. Literary Slovak shares significant orthographic features with Czech, as well technical and professional terminology dating from the Czechoslovakian period.
Eastern Slovak dialects are less intelligible with Czech; they differ structurally from Czech and from other Slovak dialects, and contact between speakers of Czech and speakers of eastern dialects is limited. However, Eastern Slovak dialects have some intelligibility with Rusyn, but both lack technical terminology and upper register expressions. Polish and Sorbian also differ from Czech and Slovak in upper registers, but non-technical and lower register speech is readily intelligible. There is also some mutual intelligibility with spoken Polish, however Polish orthography is very different; Rusyn orthography is even further, as it, like Ukrainian, uses the Cyrillic alphabet.
In addition to vocabulary common to the Slavic languages of the region, significant non-Slavic elements have been incorporated into the Slovak lexicon. Slovak went through long periods of close contact with both Hungarian and German. Both languages have left their mark on Slovak vocabulary. Hungarian loanwords in Slovak include: "paprika," Slovak paprika, Hungarian paprika; "whip," Slovak korbáč, Hungarian korbács; and "dragon", Slovak šarkan, Hungarian sárkány.[1] German loanwords include "coins," Slovak mince, German münzen; "to wish", Slovak vinšovať, German wünschen; and "color," Slovak farba, German Farbe.[2]
Dialects
There are many varieties of Slovak. These may be divided in four basic groups:
- Eastern Slovak dialects (in Spiš, Šariš, Zemplín and Abov)
- Central Slovak dialects (in Liptov, Orava, Turiec, Tekov, Hont, Novohrad, Gemer and the historic Zvolen county)
- Western Slovak dialects (in remaining Slovakia: Kysuce, Trenčín, Trnava, Nitra, Záhorie)
- Lowland (dolnozemské) Slovak dialects (outside Slovakia in the Pannonian Plain in Serbian Vojvodina, and in southeastern Hungary, western Romania, and the Croatian part of Syrmia)
The fourth group of dialects is often not considered a separate group, but a subgroup of Central and Western Slovak dialects (see e.g. Štolc, 1968), but it is currently undergoing changes due to contact with surrounding languages (Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian) and long-time geographical separation from Slovakia (see the studies in Zborník Spolku vojvodinských slovakistov, e.g. Dudok, 1993).
For an external map of the three groups in Slovakia see here.
The dialect groups differ mostly in phonology, vocabulary and inflection. Syntactic differences are minor. Central Slovak forms the basis of the present-day standard language. Not all dialects are fully mutually intelligible. It may be difficult for an inhabitant of the Slovak capital Bratislava (in western Slovakia) to understand a dialect from eastern Slovakia.
The dialects are fragmented geographically, separated by numerous mountain ranges. The first three groups already existed in the 10th century. All of them are spoken by the Slovaks outside Slovakia (USA, Canada, Croatian Slavonia, Bulgaria and elsewhere) and Central and Western dialects form the basis of the Lowland dialects (see above).
The western dialects contain features common with the Moravian dialects in the Czech Republic, the southern central dialects contain a few features common with South Slavic languages, and the eastern dialects a few features common with Polish and the East Slavonic languages (cf. Štolc, 1994). Lowland dialects share some words and areal features with the languages surrounding them (Serbian, Hungarian and Romanian).
References
- ↑ Magyar Nyelvőr – Pacsai Imre: Magyar–szlovák kulturális és nyelvi kapcsolat jegyei
- ↑ http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=21&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fhv.umb.sk%2Fapp%2FcmsFile.php%3Fdisposition%3Da%26ID%3D3394&ei=qxmPR-XQHJHEnQPLtK2kDg&usg=AFQjCNEf4UirU9NpoB4MgWiIOOeens_u8w&sig2=vmlPBs5VgF9y6L__QQ3vmg google.com
- Dudok, D. (1993) Vznik a charakter slovenských nárečí v juhoslovanskej Vojvodine [The emergence and character of the Slovak dialects in Yugoslav Vojvodina]. Zborník spolku vojvodinských slovakistov 15. Nový Sad: Spolok vojvodinských slovakistov, pp. 19-29.
- Musilová, K. and Sokolová, M. (2004) Funkčnost česko-slovenských kontaktových jevů v současnosti [The functionality of Czech-Slovak contact phenomena in the present-time]. In Fiala, J. and Machala, L. (eds.) Studia Moravica I (AUPO, Facultas Philosophica Moravica 1). Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, pp. 133–146.
- Nábělková, M. (2003) Súčasné kontexty slovensko-českej a česko-slovenskej medzijazykovosti [Contemporary contexts of the Slovak-Czech and Czech-Slovak interlinguality]. In Pospíšil, I. – Zelenka, M. (eds.) Česko-slovenské vztahy v slovanských a středoevropských souvislostech (meziliterárnost a areál). Brno: ÚS FF MU, pp. 89–122.
- Nábělková, M. (2006) V čom bližšie, v čom ďalej... Spisovná slovenčina vo vzťahu k spisovnej češtine a k obecnej češtine [In what closer, in what further... Standard Slovak in relation to Standard Czech and Common Czech]. In Gladkova, H. and Cvrček, V. (eds.) Sociální aspekty spisovných jazyků slovanských. Praha: Euroslavica, pp. 93–106.
- Nábělková, M. (2007) Closely related languages in contact: Czech, Slovak, "Czechoslovak". International Journal of the Sociology of Language 183, pp. 53-73.
- Sloboda, M. (2004) Slovensko-česká (semi)komunikace a vzájemná (ne)srozumitelnost [Slovak-Czech (semi)communication and the mutual (un)intelligibility]. Čeština doma a ve světě XII, No. 3–4, pp. 208–220.
- Sokolová, M. (1995) České kontaktové javy v slovenčine [Czech contact phenomena in Slovak]. In Ondrejovič, S. and Šimková, M. (eds.) Sociolingvistické aspekty výskumu súčasnej slovenčiny (Sociolinguistica Slovaca 1). Bratislava: Veda, pp. 188–206.
- Štolc, Jozef (1968) Reč Slovákov v Juhoslávii I.: Zvuková a gramatická stavba [The speech of the Slovaks in Yugoslavia: phonological and grammatical structure]. Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied.
- Štolc, Jozef (1994) Slovenská dialektológia [Slovak dialectology]. Ed. I. Ripka. Bratislava: Veda.
External links
- Slovak language at Ethnologue
- The Dictionary of the Slovak language (1960s; the biggest Slovak monolingual dictionary; Slovak Academy of Sciences) + Short Slovak Language Dictionary (monolingual; last edition; Slovak Academy of Sciences)
- Slovak National Corpus (Slovak Academy of Sciences)
- SLEX - Online version of Short Slovak Language Dictionary
- Slovak Alphabet and Pronunciation
- Few basic tips on speaking Slovak
- Map of Slovak Dialects
- A short English-Czech/Slovak-Japanese phraselist(Renewal) incl. sound file
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